


Doppelganger

by osprey_archer



Category: Brave (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osprey_archer/pseuds/osprey_archer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day, Merida meets her doppelganger in the woods. But this doppelganger is not quite like Merida: she's neater, calmer, carries no bow, and she sparkles. Just like the Merida Elinor always wanted...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doppelganger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Steelneko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steelneko/gifts).



Not long after the unfortunate incident when she turned her mother into a bear, Merida caught her other self.

She didn’t know it was herself at first: she only caught a glint of light at the corner of her eye, almost like a will o’ the wisp, and spun around to see where it led. But it was not a will o’ the wisp at all, but a person, skulking around in the bushes not far from Castle DunBroch.

Merida had an arrow nocked to her bow almost before she could think. “Come out!” she shouted. 

The figure stumbled out of the brush, and Merida felt a great shock, because it was a girl, and the girl was _her_.

Or - not quite her. The other Merida also had curly red hair, but her curls fell in neat waves, and although she had been hiding in the bushes, she had no leaves or twigs caught in her loose hair. She carried no bow, and her smile was small and ladylike, and her dress was so clean that it sparkled. 

Literally sparkled. Her dress flashed in the sunlight as if someone had sewn chips of diamond to it. Merida lowered her bow slowly. “Why,” Merida asked, “are you sparkling?” 

The other Merida looked down at herself. She gathered up her skirt in her hands and spun around, so the sparkles on it cast rainbows around the clearing. “Isn’t it lovely?” she said, and her voice was soft and sweet and gentle, just like Elinor always used to tell Merida that her voice should be. 

The other Merida, Merida thought with a sudden sick feeling, was just like the Merida that Elinor had always wanted. 

“We’d better go back to the castle,” Merida said grimly. 

***

“Mother!” Merida shouted, striding into the great hall with the other Merida in tow. “ _Mother_! Where are you? Did you make a deal with the witch? Did you ask her for a new and improved version of me? Mother, where _are_ you?”

“I’m coming, Merida, don’t shout,” Elinor said. Merida and Elinor got along better these days, but some things never changed. Elinor entered the great hall, moving so swiftly that her skirts swooped behind her, and then stopped abruptly halfway down the stairs. “What is _this_?”

“It’s the me you always wanted!” Merida cried. 

“Greetings, your royal highness,” said the other Merida. She swept a curtsey so low and so deep that Merida would have toppled over if she had even attempted it. The sparkles on her dress cast points of light along the walls of the great hall. “I’m so pleased to meet you.”

Elinor curtsied back, although not quite as deeply. “I’m glad to meet you, too,” she said kindly, and then, less kindly, to her daughter: “Merida, did you make another deal with the witch?”

“Me? No! Why would I do that?” 

“So we could marry her off in your stead,” Elinor suggested. 

“Marry me off? To a prince?” asked the other Merida, clasping her hands to her breast. She caught up her skirt in one hand and began to swirl around the great hall, her voice rising to a sweet warble that filled the castle with a glorious rush of sound. Swallows flew out of the rafters, landing in a line along her outstretched arm and singing in harmony with her. “Someday my prince will come,” she sang.

Elinor and Merida both stared. “I never knew you could sing,” said Elinor. 

“She’s not me!” Merida exploded.

“Oh, Merida…” Elinor came the rest of the way down the stairs and laid a hand on Merida’s shoulder. Merida shook her off. 

“You wished her into existence, didn’t you?” Merida said. “She’s everything you’ve always wanted me to be. You like her better than me already!” 

Elinor sighed. “This is my fault,” she agreed, looking at the other Merida, who knelt in the center of the floor surrounded by the hounds of DunBroch. They all vied to put their heads in her lap, but not a single hair or speck of drool marred her sparkly dress. “Before your suitors came,” she said, “I left an offering of milk to the Good Folk, and wished that you would become more amenable to suitors.” 

“You wanted to replace me!” Merida said. “Maybe there are more of her. We could marry a copy of me off to each of the three princes, and then all their problems would be over, wouldn’t they? If only the triplets had been _me, me_ , and _me_!” 

“ _You_ wanted me to change so badly that you turned me into a bear,” Elinor reminded her dryly. 

“She never told me it would turn you into a _bear_ ,” Merida protested. “But this - you tried to _replace_ me! Did you plan to lock the real me up in the dungeons? Were you going to sell me off to the Vikings?” Merida’s eyes lit up. “I could have become a Viking shieldmaiden. We could go sack Byzantium! Maybe you should let her replace me, after all...” 

“Merida!” Elinor said. “I didn’t ask to replace you, anymore than you asked for me to turn into a bear. Although apparently,” Elinor said, sighing, “the only way to make you want to marry is to make you a completely different person.” 

The hounds had given way to deer now. They crept into the hall on their slender legs and thrust their soft dark noses into the other Merida’s hands, shy but unconcerned by the hunting hounds who rested around the edges of the hall. 

“At least she’s good for something,” Merida said. “As long as she’s here, we’ll never go short of meat again.” 

At that, the other Merida looked up. Her soft blue eyes suddenly burned, like the heart of a forge fire. “You’re planning to hurt my animal friends?” she cried. “I’ll never allow it!” 

And, so swiftly that even Merida would not have had time to draw her bow, the other Merida kilted up her sparkling skirts and left the great hall with deer-like leaps. The deer followed, and the hounds, and the swallows, and even the mice and rats rushed out, following the other Merida back to her home in the forest among the Good Folk. 

Merida whistled: another unladylike skill. The hunting hounds reluctantly drew to heel, and slunk back into the hall. “Does this mean I can’t run away with the Vikings and sack Byzantium?” she asked wistfully. 

“Yes,” Elinor said firmly. She kissed Merida on top of her springy, messy red hair, absently picking a fallen leaf from the curls. “We would miss you too much.” 

Merida sighed. But she smiled at her mother. There was still time for Byzantium in the future: for now, it was good to be wanted at home.

**Author's Note:**

> I found the idea of Merida meeting her Disney princess line redesign utterly enchanting. Hope you enjoy!


End file.
